Euro Road Trip Recap: Day 2 - Èze, Monaco and Monaco Some More

Not very impressed with Nice on our brief night out, Scott and I decided to spend the afternoon in Monaco while Viphak drove back to Menton to spend more time with his relatives.

We woke up early and caught the breakfast at the hostel, which the guy at the front desk the night before described as really good and free. The words "really good" and "free" associated with "hostel" should have raised the red flag right away, but who were we to turn down free food.

After eating "really good" cold cereal and "really good" toast, we packed into our car and hit the road. We decided to first stop off at Èze, a medieval town located on top of the hills that was on the way to Monaco.

Èze offered some great views of the Mediterranean. How great you ask? So great that once you walk up to the top of the town, they charged you 5 Euros just to go into their garden for an unobstructed view of the sea (tourism at it's finest).



After taking some pictures like the one above, we headed towards Monaco, the land of egregious wealth, tax evasion, and a blinged out casino. While Viphak took off for his relatives, Scott and I began our day trip breaking out our cameras and taking what we dubbed "the money shot" in front of the fountain and casino.



We then headed down to the harbor where we bare witnessed to a bunch of triple decker private yachts and a deserted carnival -- apparently the rich and wealthy doesn't like to hobnob with the carnies too much.

Next, we ascended the hill to the Place du Palais, and lucky for us, we were wearing a shirt and left our Speedo in the car.



At the top, we were treated with views of the water and harbor that were so fantastic, my camera exploded from taking a million pictures of it. Here are some pictures before my camera exploded:





Speaking of exploded, that brings me back to Viphak. Scott and I took about 3 hours to finish doing our thing in Monaco, and then promptly waited for Viphak playing computerized roulette at a casino (not THE casino, that one charges a 10 Euro entry fee). We hadn't received a phone call from Viphak the entire day and we set a 6pm time to start getting worried.

6pm came and went, as did 7 and 8. The only good thing that came from waiting was being able to get another "moneyshot" of the casino at dusk:



I eventually got a hold of one of Viphak's relatives on the phone and was told the following:

Viphak followed GPS and drove down a one-way.
Viphak got car stuck.
Viphak's cousin helped him.
Viphak drove to Nice airport to get new car.

Viphak finally rolled into Monaco at around 10pm and he verified the story, but also clarified that the car got stuck because one wheel was hanging off a cliff and that he needed a new car because he destroyed the clutch to prevent himself from sliding off the road and falling to his impending death.

For the rest of the night, we decided to hit the road and get as close to Barcelona as possible. After fighting off the sandman on several occasions, Viphak (not sure why we let him drive after all that) got us to Nîmes for some much needed rest because the next day would again prove to be an adventurous one -- well for Viphak anyway... (you saw that coming right?)